by Senior Master Sgt. Jim Katzaman
Air Force News Service
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AFNS Feature) -- With the stroke of his pen, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. As one of the act's provisions the "Man from Independence" launched the independent Air Force.
Forty-nine years later the National Football League saluted the Air Force at stadiums around the nation. Fittingly, one of those gridirons was in Arrowhead Stadium in the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, a short distance from where the 33rd president grew up.
Almost from the day he assumed office, Truman wanted to reshape the U.S. defense and intelligence establishments. The end of World War II cleared the way, and he sent the National Security Act proposal to Congress in February 1947.
The sweeping act that passed and Truman signed into law that summer made historic changes. It consolidated the War and Navy branches into a single Department of Defense, elevated the Air Force to equal status with the Army and Navy, set up the National Security Council and formally authorized the Central Intelligence Agency.
The former World War I Army captain tapped James Forrestal to be the first secretary of defense. The president then nominated Stuart Symington of Missouri to be the first secretary of the Air Force.
Truman's influence on the Air Force and the other armed services didn't stop there. On July 26, 1948, he issued an executive order requiring equal treatment and opportunity for all military personnel. Within three years most military units were racially integrated.
Today, just as when he lived, visitors to the shaded Truman home in Independence can step out onto what is now Truman Road and see the high-rises of Kansas City. Nearby stands the professional baseball and football complex that bears his name.
Young Harry Truman avoided sports. The danger of breaking his glasses was too great, and the future president turned instead to reading biographies and history. Even so, he might have been intrigued by the Sept. 22 tangle between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs. The Air Force-NFL ceremonies were, after all, the aftermath of history made possible by the Man from Independence and his pen.